Michal Kamiński

Michal Kamiński is the Polish MEP who leads the new European Conservatives and Reformists grouping in the European Parliament, of which the British Conservatives form the largest national delegation. Writing exclusively for ConservativeHome, here he rebuts the allegations of racism and anti-Semitism made against him and his party, in particular by former Conservative MEP, Edward McMillan-Scott.

When my party, the Law and Justice Party of Poland, the British Conservative Party, the Czech Civic Democrats and our other allies decided to break the mould in the European Parliament by creating for the first time a mainstream, centre-right, non-federalist group there, we knew we would meet opposition.

The European Parliament’s establishment was full of people committed to a federal European Union. Since the group’s creation changed the parliamentary positions available to its members, the new group would also inevitably mean good outcomes for some but personal disappointment for others.

Edward McMillan-Scott has served as an MEP for many years, recently in the senior position of vice-president of the European Parliament. He was known to like the Conservative Party’s old arrangement of sitting with the European People’s Party (EPP), even though the EPP is committed to exactly the kind of federal Europe the Conservative Party opposes. No one expected him to be pleased that the new arrangement meant that our new alliance could not support his continuation as a vice-president.

Even so, my British colleagues and I have been shocked by his behaviour. What he has said about me, my beliefs and my Party, accusing us of being racist fascists, is completely untrue and he knows it. No country suffered more from the Nazis than Poland. Nowhere was their Holocaust of the Jewish people more murderous and more terrible than Poland. My grandfathers fought the Nazis. Many of my colleagues’ parents and grandparents were killed by them. Mr McMillan-Scott’s accusations are beyond offensive.